Devices for supporting potted plant containers are generally well known. The more common of these generally take the form of a plate or bowl of various shapes designed to hold the pot as well as capture a limited amount of excess water from the pot itself One problem with such devices is that they generally do not permit water which may accumulate beneath themselves on the floor surface to evaporate. Because the moisture cannot evaporate, mold, mildew, fungus and rot can develop and can stain, deteriorate or destroy the floor surface on which the plant pot support is placed.
Less well known are devices for elevating the plant pot so as to permit evaporation of any moisture which might accumulate under the pot due to over-watering, seepage, or condensation. It is therefore an object of the present invention to permit evaporation of moisture under the plant pot so as to prevent stains, rot, mold, mildew and other moisture-induced deterioration or destruction of the floor surface upon which the plant pot support rests.
The few existing devices which elevate to permit evaporation, however, are not easily adjustable in size. As a result, a support for an eight-inch diameter pot, for example, would not be suitable for a six-inch diameter pot as it would extend out from beneath the pot and so detract from the aesthetic appearance of the plant pot. Thus, many typical purchasers, who may not usually come to the plant or garden store equipped with specific measurements or dimensions of their various plant pots, must guess which size support to purchase, or purchase more than is needed. Under such circumstances, some purchasers may well decline purchasing at all. It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a plant pot support which is extensively and easily adjustable and one-size-fits-all.
Some support devices in other fields exist which are mechanically adjustable. However, adjusting such devices ordinarily requires the use of tools and are therefore inconvenient for most purchasers. Similarly, some such devices require for their adjustment repetitively moving parts which are ordinarily more subject to wear and failure in operation than devices not subject to repetitive mechanical operation. It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a plant pot support which is very easily manually adjustable, without the use of any tools, and without any repetitively moving parts subject to wear and failure in operation.
Many plant pots, particularly the larger ones, are quite heavy. As a result, it is important to distribute the live load somewhat over the floor surface area so as to avoid damage to the floor surface due to puncture or scratching. Similarly, if the floor surface is carpeted, particularly with deeper pile, such load distribution can be essential to retaining the elevating and evaporating functions described above. It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a plant pot support which, while still elevating the pot as described above, also distributes the load of the plant pot in a manner which prevents damage to hard floor surfaces and retains sufficient elevating and evaporation properties over a deep pile carpeted floor.
Finally, most or all of the prior devices are more costly to manufacture and produce than the present invention. The present invention, notwithstanding attainment of all of the foregoing objectives, due to its extremely elegant simplicity, can also be manufactured at almost negligible cost.